Hot Topics

505 Games and Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment have teamed up to co-publish the DS game based on the forthcoming movie Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore. Both the Warner movie and associated game are due to reach consumers in July this year.

AT New Media will introduce Mr. Men and Little Miss to the interactive gaming industry, securing third-party multi-platform licensing deals worldwide.

Tool and tech company BigWorld has made available a trio of new products specifically created for the indie developers, students and small commercial studios working on MMOs.

Legacy Interactive has enjoyed great success by creating games built around the IP of popular TV series, carving a particular niche with titles based on classic crime romps such as Murder She Wrote and Sherlock Holmes. Keen to learn more, CasualGaming.biz caught up with the firm’s CEO and president Ariella Lehrer.

After over three-and-a-half years of development by Colarado studio NetDevil, gameplay from the Lego Universe MMO has finally been detailed. Apparently pitched in a way that sees it sit between casual virtual world Second Life and hardcore MMO World of Warcraft, the game is due for release on PC in 2010.

Paul Comben, CEO of AT New Media, has penned an article specially written for our Licensing Month, which looks at the role of the only licensing agency specialising in brokering deals between rights owners and casual games publishers.

With the initial tie-up between supermarket chain Asda and LazyTown having been a major success since its launch in April, the two companies have further strengthened their alliance.

Player One is a specialist in the field of sports, working closely with a number of licensors like Matchroom to secure IP including Freddie Flintoff Powerplay Cricket, Ronnie O’Sullivan’s Snooker, Jensen Button’s Grand Prix Racing, Frankie Dettori’s Horse Racing and Ernie Els’s Golf.

MCV's Christopher Dring looks at the opportunities licensing brings games makers, and discovers that the casual sector is making a reality of licenses that would have never been considered only a few years ago. This special feature is the first of many appearing this month as part of CasualGaming.biz's Licensing Month.

Publishers are being urged to take a chance on a Roland Rat game, after a US IP agency snapped up the rights to the classic 1980s television character.

International gym giant Fitness First has increased its presence in the ‘healthy gaming’ sector with a new range of official peripherals. In May, the firm put its name to Black Bean and Ubisoft’s Wii fitness title New-U, due for release next month. The publishers claim that NewU is the first product of its kind to feature video ‘personal training’ throughout.

EA is about to win the valuable Worms licence from THQ Wireless, CasualGaming.biz's sister site Mobile Entertainment understands.

Japanese games publisher Konami has won the exclusive international video games rights to Italian trading card franchise Gormiti, with the first titles based on the series heading for Wii and DS.

Cats, Evita and more top stage musicals could all soon have their own video games, as the company in charge of Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s most famous brands enters discussions with video games companies.

The rights owner of globally popular kid’s TV show LazyTown is actively seeking development and publishing partners to bring the franchise to the world of gaming.